[vcf-midatlantic] The good old days of user groups.

[Dean Notarnicola]

Seconded on the TRS-80 Discord. Very high signal to noise ratio, invite
only helps that greatly.

On Mon, Aug 24, 2020 at 6:23 PM Mike Loewen via vcf-midatlantic <
vcf-midatlantic at lists.vcfed.org> wrote:

> On Mon, 24 Aug 2020, Ethan O'Toole via vcf-midatlantic wrote:
>
>
>
> >>  As someone who did grow up with them, I can tell you that this is
>
> >>  absolutely the case.  The Internet is presented to people as a "you can
>
> >>  GET this, you can GET that!"  "Get get get!"  ...not "participate", not
>
> >
>
> > Oh no way. There were leaches on BBSes too. Heck, they had their own
>
> > protocol! LeachZModem. It would complete the entire transfer to disk
> then
>
> > tell the remote side that the xfer wasn't successful, back up... back
> up...
>
> > back up... abort. So user wouldn't get dinged for the download.
>
>
>
>     I never heard of LeachZModem. On the Unix BBS I ran through the '90s,
> I
>
> enforced a file upload/download ratio. Leeches soon found themselves
>
> (automatically) unable to download until they uploaded something relevant.
>
> Users with favorable ratios got more daily online minutes.
>
>
>
> > A big problem with the stand alone forums is the spam bots and stuff.
> But
>
> > many of them are still successful, although traffic is declining. I
> ain't
>
> > gonna lie...
>
>
>
>     There are some newer platforms such as Discord, which are promoting
>
> real-time conversations. I belong to a TRS-80 Discord which has some of
> the
>
> most technically knowledgeable TRS-80 users around. Some of them even used
> to
>
> work for Tandy. The support and advance of the technology there is
> incredible.
>
> The ClassicCmp Discord is another good one, with many technical users and
>
> varied interests. Discord supports image and file uploads, as well.
>
>
>
>
>
> Mike Loewen                             mloewen at cpumagic.scol.pa.us
>
> Old Technology                          http://q7.neurotica.com/Oldtech/
>
>